1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates generally to RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks) systems and setup methods thereof, and, more particularly to systems and setup methods thereof that integrate several RAID 0 architectures.
2. Description of the Related Art
Employment of disk arrays can improve access speed to disks and prevent data lost due to disk failure. Disk arrays integrate several disks into an array, used as a single disk. Data in a disk array is stripped and stored in different disks. During data access, related disks in the disk array can work simultaneously, reducing the data access time.
The technique for disk array is referred to as RAID, and configured in levels RAID 0 to RAID 5. In RAID 0 architecture, since data is stripped and stored in different disks, and respective disks can work independently, data can be simultaneously read/written on different disks, improving the data access efficiency. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional RAID 0 architecture. As shown in FIG. 1, disks D0, D1, . . . , Dn are selected as a group to create a RAID 0 architecture, in which data strips S0, S1, . . . , Sn+1 are stored in different disks. It is understood that a strip size parameter must be configured during the creation of RAID 0 architecture, and data is stripped and stored in different disks accordingly.
Generally, an enterprise extends a storage system according to its own requirement. With advances in manufacturing technology and process, disk capacity has grown. Several disks having different sizes may be utilized in an enterprise. In conventional disk array technology, however, only a single RAID level can be applied, such that the capacity of each disk cannot be fully utilized. In FIG. 1, since disks D0, D1, . . . ,Dn are selected to create a RAID 0 architecture, and disk D0 has minimum disk capacity, the disk capacity of disk D0 size in respective disks is selected to create the RAID 0 architecture. As shown in FIG. 1, since the disk size of respective disks are different, the remnant disk capacity R1 in disk D1 and remnant disk capacity R2 and R3 in disk Dn cannot be fully utilized.